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Rick and Jessica Garcia of West Covina kiss after they are married by volunteer Elizabeth Oakes at the LA County Registrar-Recorder’s office on Monday in Norwalk. The couple have been together for two years.

Maya Sugarman/KPCC

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This post is part of KPCC's "Season's Givings" series, chronicling volunteer experiences and opportunities during the holiday season. View a full listing of local charites that could use your help and let us know your holiday volunteer story!

As engaged couples pack into Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder offices to tie the knot on the last triple date of the century -- 12-12-12 -- they might not realize that the officiant wearing the black robe and reciting the ceremony is a volunteer.

Volunteers perform about 85 percent of the civil wedding ceremonies done at branches of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office.

Rick Garcia is in the National Guard. Jessica Serna is his fiancee, and their son is due in March. The West Covina couple awaiting their ceremony in the Registrar's Norwalk office were happily surprised that a volunteer would oversee their vows.

"Having a volunteer is really cool. It shows she's not a selfish person," Garcia said. He's wearing a white tie and black shirt, and he's got his hair slicked into a pompadour. She's wearing a pleated peach one-shoulder dress that displays a rose tattoo on her right back shoulder blade.

Their parents and a few other relatives have accompanied them and they fit nicely inside the tiny chapel. It's a blue sponge-painted room with just a black podium, a pink-flowered metal arch, a few wooden pews.

Inside, volunteer wedding officiant Elizabeth Oakes tells the couple they are making an important promise to each other.

"We ask you also to affirm that promise that you know," she said, reciting the words every married couple knows in the first of what could be as many as 20 weddings she'll perform on this day -- "To love each other to honor, to cherish to be respectful and all these other things so that you have the best shot at making this a successful and strong and long-lasting marriage."

Oakes' tone is informal, caring and authoritative. The mood turns serious as she talks the young couple through the meaning of each of the words in their vows: honor, cherish, respect, faithfulness.

The bride's mother wipes away tears, and her sister records the ceremony on her phone.

And then comes the big moment: "Richard and Jessica, you are now also husband and wife. It is customary to celebrate this moment with a kiss. Congratulations!"

Oakes said her volunteerism furthers the cause of love among L.A.'s diverse population.

"L.A. is home to people from everywhere in the world and they come here and we see them marrying each other. And so to me it is tremendously heartening to see that happening and it continues to inspire me to keep coming back for more," she said.

It was inspring enough that Oakes -- who has been volunteering for more than ten years -- chose this same chapel with the pink-flowered metal arch for her own wedding.

The 37 county wedding volunteers have saved county taxpayers about $200,000 said Portia Sanders, the Public Records Division manager who oversees the program.

"It's a great value because we are able to free up staff to do more administrative work." Sanders said. "This is one of the most fun parts of the job, but we give that to someone else to do and they enjoy it so much some of the volunteers say they should be paying us for the experience."

The program began in 1997 and has been widely copied across California and the nation. Sanders estimates volunteers have performed in about 200,000 weddings since then, representing more than 85 percent of the civil ceremonies in county offices.

They want more volunteers for seven chapels around the county. Weddings are held each weekday at the Norwalk office and on Thursdays and Fridays at other locations. The need for new volunteers is highest in Lancaster and at the Florence-Firestone office. They're also looking for Cantonese-speaking volunteers for the East Los Angeles office.

And for couples hoping to grab some once-in-a-century good luck, the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder's office added extra hours for marriage ceremonies today at several locations.